Not again
by LunatheInksane
Summary: Annabeth and Percy are twenty two and happily in love in New York city. They defeated Gaia and their heroic days are behind them. That is, until Nico di Angelo shows up with an alarming amount of new and unheard magic.
1. the boy i could never read

"Annabeth! Nico's here." Percy yelled.

"Coming. Hold on." I said. Wondering why Nico wanted to meet me of all people. He'd always kept his distance. Distance from everyone that is except Percy. Hell, as much as I analyzed him, I could never get a proper read. And that, my friend, is saying something.

I quickly wrapped up the blueprints of my new architecture project, smoothened my hair and then messed it up. It was Nico, after all. What need for niceties?

Percy smiled at me as he got back to watching Spongebob. Yes, my twenty two year old boyfriend still watched Spongebob, and no. He was not ashamed of it.

I reached the front door to see a handsome man. Not a scraggly, scrawny boy with messed up black hair and a body on the verge of being called anorexic. He was healthy and happy, I presumed from his appearance.

"To what do I owe the honour?" I asked.

He smiled though there was a look of urgency in his eyes. He looked at Percy and said:

"Not here."

That's it. He then walked away. I assumed he expected me to follow. Normally, I wouldn't have. But there was that look in his eyes. I'd only seen it once before; When Bianca died.

"Seaweed Brain! I'm going grocery shopping." I said.  
"Bring me some of those cheesy crackers." He said, his eyes glues to Patrick annoying that blue, snobby, uptight guy.

I rolled my eyes and walked out.

I had taken not more that three steps when Nico suddenly emerged out of thin air.

"Where'd you come from?" I asked, stepping back.

He coolly replied, "If you'd been where I'd been, you would know this stuff too."

He was an enigma wrapped in a mystery. I followed him across the town. We never spoke. Sometimes I'd spot the same restaurant or mall and think that we were walking in circles. I never said anything though. I was curious. What had become of this boy? After defeating Gaia, he has simply vanished off the face of the Earth. His disappearance affected Percy and Hazel the most.

Sometimes I wondered about him.

It had been almost three and a half hours now. Jeez, who knew New York had five of the same restaurants?

He stopped in front of a crossroad. He raised his arms and said "somnum," the latin word for sleep.

Suddenly everyone stopped. The traffic, the cars, the people in them, pedestrians, they just froze.

"What is this, Nico!" I shouted. I had a bad feeling about this.

"This is the beginning of the end." He said.

"What do you mean?" This was freaking me out.

"Save Percy."

And then, he disappeared into thin air….


	2. home

I watched as the people slowly woke up from their slumber. Sure, they were dazed, but they were awake and unharmed. It takes some pretty powerful magic to sedate hundreds of people. Who was Nico?

I had a feeling that was a question I would never know. He was always so reserved with me.

Somehow, those two words stuck in my mind. What did he mean by 'save Percy'? Percy was stronger than most people I knew. I knew that. So did he.

Why save him? Was something happening? Another war, another uprising? No. We had a new group of half bloods. They were better trained, better informed, younger, also inexperienced when it came to battles and wars.

I looked at the sky. There was a flash of lightning followed by thunder. It hadn't rained this badly in a while. Zeus was angry. Something was coming, something to do with Percy, which meant something to do with me.

I hailed a cab. It was raining to hard to walk back home and even though I'd memorized the map of New York long ago, I simply couldn't recognize this place. "Going home?" the cabbie asked. He was old and his features were…average. Forgettable.

I was tempted to reply sarcastically. Instead, I just nodded.

He gave me a knowing smile and snapped his fingers. Suddenly everything around me turned to mist. No, I was being engulfed in mist. I was the soft, white mist fading. I was breaking down. I was being broken down. Before I could even react, he whispered, "memento mori."

And suddenly I was awake.

I sat up straight on my bed. I was home. I tilted my body to look at the alarm clock. It was almost three am.

It was just a dream, I muttered. Yeah right. I was a half blood. For us, dreams are less deceiving than reality.

I turned to my left and saw that the bed was empty. Where was Percy? Panicking, I quickly got up from my bed. My clothes were drenched. I was drenched. It was al real. It didn't matter. Percy. I had to keep him safe.

I found him in the living room. He probably fell asleep while watching Tv.

"Percy, wake up." I said.

"No. Not the muffins." He replied.

I raised my eyebrows. Apparently, his dreams differed from mine. "Percy!" I said, my pitch a bit higher this time."

That seemed to wake him up.

"What are you doing here? "I asked.

"Nothing. The storm woke me up, so I decided to watch Tv. Must've fallen asleep."

"We gotta go visit Rachel," I said. I knew that's what we had to do. Something or someone was coming for Percy. I needed to know who or what. And no one tells the future like an oracle.

"Okay. But you should change. She doesn't like her apartment all wet." He said.

This is why we worked as a couple. We'd been through so much that it just didn't matter anymore. He didn't ask me why I was drenched. He just accepted it.

Either that or he was really sleepy.

I quickly threw on some dry clothes and we made our way out. Rachel had taken an apartment next to ours after the big war. I sometimes suspected that she and Nico had gotten together. I would go to her apartment and see a leather jacket here, or a stygian whistle there. She'd just deny it and say she didn't see anything. She could make one question their sanity.

This time though, I didn't get to look for clues about her secret meetings with Nico. She wasn't at home.

There was a post it on her front door.

It said:

_**Hey! A storm is coming. You might wanna take an umbrella.**_

_**And Percy and Annabeth: I'm with Nico. We need to go back to where it all started. Our first adventure together. **_

_**Be safe and don't go back to that apartment. Go back to Home.**_

Rachel.

"Well, do you have any drachmas?" Percy asked.

"Grey sisters taxi?" I asked. Percy nodded.

It was obvious. Home meant camp. It always did.


	3. A new camp director

"Well, that wasn't so bad." Percy said.

I had to agree. Maybe the Grey sisters taxi service got easier to handle second time round. I mean I only puked twice.

I grinned. Improvement was always welcome.

We made our way towards camp borders. Thalia's tree was still working perfectly well; All the more reason to grin.

"You seem happy." Percy stated.

"Why wouldn't I be? We're in camp Percy, camp!"

He smiled. It wasn't a happy one, nor was it a sad one. It was nostalgia: All the memories and possibilities at once.

We entered camp. Dead silence surrounded us. Why wouldn't there be silence? It was four in the morning. Half blood or not, sleeping was a privilege we all appreciated.

"Poseidon?" I ask Percy.

"Poseidon." He says.

We make our way towards the marine cabin as silently as possible. Inside, it looked exactly as it did so many years ago. There were chocolate wrappers and paper balls and oddly everything was blue.

We snuggled into bed, turned off the lights and whispered goodnight.

Rachel was right. Camp was home after all.

The next morning, I woke up to shrieks.

I'd slept for about two hours before all the screaming woke me up. I quickly got up. My first instinct was Percy. Was he safe?

The seaweed brain was still snoring in bed.

I looked out the door to see people running around. It was madness. No, people running around wasn't madness, it was chaos.

It seemed that everyone was running towards the field. I walked out. Nobody stared at me. Odd. I expected lots of questions from the teenagers about a twenty year old in camp. Hey, a half blood was a half blood. Age didn't change that.

Nobody objected as I weaved my way to the front of the crowd. It was an arrow. A sole arrow. Can you imagine campers freaking about an arrow? This is what the greek world has come to I thought. That was until, a black haired fellow who was built for the Ares cabin read out from a scroll. There was a slight tear on the sole. It had been attached to the arrow.

"Beware campers you've been warned. Olympus shall fall. "He read out.

Everyone just stood there, drowning in silence and swallowing his or her shock.

"Aren't you going to have a meeting at the Big House?" I asked. Someone had to do it. Where was Chiron? He was the one who usually maintained peace during trying times like these.

It was somewhere along the lines of these musings that all the campers trained their gazes at me. To have a huge crowd looking at you with mixed expressions is very unsettling. Some looked at me with anger, some with defiance, some with awe and some with fear.

It was clear to me that my next words will decide how they judge me.

"Where's Chiron?" I asked.

"What is it to you?" said the boy who read out the warning. Ares. I knew it. It seemed like he was the leader of the camp. We don't actually have leaders but there are always a few people who the others follow. Percy was one of those. This boy was nothing like Percy though. His eyes were cruel and judgmental. His demeanor was rude and arrogant. I instantly disliked him.

"I am Annabeth Chase. I'm a former camper. I come here with my boyfriend Percy." I said.

I watched as those mixed expressions transformed into one uniform one. I am very happy to tell you that the expression was none other than awe. Chiron had told me long ago. I think it was after we escaped the labyrinth. Chiron clearly told me "You and Percy will be immortal legends."

I never imagined that it would happen like this.

"Cabin meeting." Someone called. I smiled.

I always thought it would be fun to be cabin director.


	4. Damn

I smiled wistfully as I saw Percy enter. He hadn't changed out of his clothes from last night and he had a sever case of bed hair. The look on his face, when he saw the kids around the ping pong table and me where Chiron sat was worth a million drachmas.

"What's going on?" He asked, as he proceeded to rub his eyes. The poor boy probably thought this was some sort of dream.

"We're having a cabin meeting." I said, "Troy, you want to fill Percy up on what happened."

Troy was the Ares kid who read out the warning. I almost laughed out loud when he introduced himself. His name was Troy. Troy, the city famous for the worst was ever known to the Greeks. Not to my surprise, he was an Ares kid.

So, as I looked towards Troy I saw nothing but awe.

"Y-you're Percy Jackson. The Percy Jackson?" He asked.

I rolled my eyes, half expecting a few autograph books to pop out. His next words surprised me.

"Do you know Clarisse La Rue and Nico Di Angelo? They are my idols." He said, swooning.

Percy was slack jawed. I don't know why, but he suddenly asked for Chiron. "Where's Chiron? "He said. He sounded annoyed. I'm guessing it wasn't' about the lack of blue cookies on the table.

"Umm, he went on a quest." A girl said. I remember her name. Tamara. She was from the Demeter cabin. It wasn't who she was that bothered me. It was what she said. Chiron, on a quest? Like Grover would say "shit just got serious."

Percy and I shared looks. We both nodded in mutual agreement. This was not something to discuss amongst the kids.

The meeting continued. In the end it was decided that we would send out a trio to find out something about these attacks and Troy would lead the quest (obviously). There was some debate about the other to members of the quest. Tamara won unanimously, but the third member was a bit of trouble. We had several arguments before Sasha, an Aphrodite demigod was chosen. She was everything that I didn't expect her to be. She wasn't stunning. Nope. Not at all. She didn't possess an iota of beauty, or grace. Of course she wasn't ugly, she was just normal. An average teenager.

And so, my first cabin meeting as an unofficial camp director ended. Percy and I quickly sent Troy to meet the oracle. The mummy kind. Rachel obviously wasn't here. And Troy wasn't too happy about it too.

While Troy was in there, Percy and I had a quick conversation.

"How bad do you think it is? "I asked.

"If it made Chiron go on a quest, I'd say really really bad."

I nodded. I already knew that, but Percy saying it out loud really mattered. If he thought things were bad, then things were pretty damn bad.

"Should we go on a search for him?" Percy asked.

"No. I think we need to find Nico and Rachel. Everything is related. Suddenly things from our own life are popping up. I hate to say it, but it involves us. "I say.

"What do you mean?" Percy asked and I quickly filled him up on my dream with Nico.

"We've got to find Nico and Rachel." Percy said.

"About that. I've been working on a theory. What did Rachel say? _**And Percy and Annabeth: I'm with Nico. We need to go back to where it all started. Our first adventure together."**_

"Our first adventure together? She and Nico are going back into the labyrinth?" Percy said, terrified.

A look of horror overtook my face. No. No one goes back to the labyrinth willingly.

"She's gone to Hoover Dam." I said, evidently relieved.

"Damn. I thought I got the answer for once."

I smiled. Do what you may, Percy and bad humor were inseparable.

"Looks like we're going to Hoover Dam." Percy said.

"Yes. But I don't think Nico and Rachel want us there. She would have told us to follow her if she wanted us to. Why did she make us come to camp?" I replied.

"To save Chiron." Troy said.

Both Percy and I turned to look at him. He was shaken. What could the mummy have told him?

"Explain." Said Percy.

"_**Three half bloods and one of sight**_

_**Shall make their way into the night**_

_**To save the teacher lost in its palace**_

_**And drink from the immortal chalice."**_

And then, Troy fainted.


	5. Hi Grandma,

"Okay. Ready?" I asked.

Tamara, Troy and Sasha nodded. Percy knew the question wasn't for him. After all, how many times had he and Annabeth crossed camp borders knowing that they potentially marching to their death.

The three half bloods walked out.

"Remember to Iris message us when you reach Olympus." I shouted. I was having an inner turmoil. On one hand sending young campers to Olympus alone was suicide; on the other hand the prophecy was for Percy and Annabeth. Obviously.

The prophecy was clear. As clear as prophecies get that is.

I did a deconstruction in my head as I watched Tamara, Troy and Sasha go.

"_**Three half bloods and one of sight**_

Naturally that meant Percy, Nico and I were the half bloods because Rachel was the one of sight.

_**Shall make their way into the night**_

What did this mean? We'll walk into darkness? So this was pretty cloudy.

_**To save the teacher lost in its palace**_

Chiron had to be the teacher. Our quest was to save Chiron. What quest was Chiron on then? And whose palace was he lost in exactly?

_**And drink from the immortal chalice."**_

Who will drink? All of us? One of us? Ugh. Scratch what I said earlier. This prophecy was lousy and "immortal chalice"?

I did a quick look back on the word chalice. It came from the Greek word _Kalyx_. It was usually used in ceremonies. Would we interrupt a ceremony? Would we be part of a ceremony? Would there actually be a ceremony?

There were too many questions. The only way to get the answers was to actually complete the quest.

"Rachel and Nico are at Hoover dam?" Percy asked me. He seemed a little concerned, probably because I looked as if I was spacing out.

"Yeah. I just hope that they are still there. Nico can shadow travel you know."I said. I felt sleepy. My eyelids already started drooping.

"Let's take Blackjack. You can sleep on the way too." Percy said.

No matter what people said. He really was a half decent boyfriend.

"Sure. Did they move the stables after the renovation?" I muttered, mostly to myself. We hadn't really kept in touch with camp after the big war. Both Percy and I wanted a new life; life without apocalypses, deadlines, quests and evil people trying to kill us.

"Don't worry. I planned ahead." Percy said, as he whistled.

Lo and Behold! There were to pegasi ready to travel.

"You have to see it to believe it." I said.

A puzzled Percy asked me, "What? Pegasi?"

"No, Seaweed Brain. You, planning ahead."

It was a short ride. It felt like the blink of an eye to me. But then, sleep time always felt like that.

I got off the pegasi and let Percy do the thanking.

The sight of this place still took my breath away. It was such a beautiful architectural monument. One couldn't have made a more fitting tribute to President Hoover.

There was a tour guide passing by with a large group of American tourists. I quickly slipped in, and gestured at Percy to hurry up.

"The Hoover Dam, once known as the Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam that provides hydroelectric power. It has three million cubic yards of concrete in it." The tour guide said.

She was in her mid thirties, blonde with honey colored streaks and she looked like a model more than an architectural aficionado.

"Excuse me." I called out. I

"Yes?" She turned to look at me with judgmental eyes.

"It has three million and a quarter cubic yards of concrete in it." I said in a very unapologetic tone. Percy had joined me by now and by the look on his face, he could sense my irritation.

"You must be Annabeth Chase." The lady said. Her face broke out into a smile that exposed her too bleached blindingly white perfect teeth.

"Well I didn't see that coming," Percy said.

"But I knew you were coming, Percy Jackson." She said, as she smiled.

"Who are you?" I asked. She didn't look like a monster. But then, which monster actually looked like them?

"I am Wisdom. I am Cunning. I am Good Counsel, and that is exactly what I've come to offer you." She said. She began to glow. She seemed like a god, but not quite.

"Enough with the fancy words. I want a name." Percy said. He really found it annoying when immortals were all high and mighty about their powers.

"A name? Well, I am your grandmother Annabeth." She said.

The wheels of my brain turned. Who was Athena's mother?

"M-Metis?" I spluttered.

"Yes. I am here to offer you my services as a Titan of wise counsel." She said. She seemed pleased that I knew her name. I looked at Percy. He already took out Riptide. It was still a writing instrument, but for how long?

"What counsel?" I asked.

"Olympus will fall. I know that. You must choose wisely and decide to let it fall. Come to the winning side, Annabeth. That bastard Zeus has been in power for much too long. If you choose to save Olympus, know that sacrifices will be made," she looked towards Percy and said "loves will be lost."

And then, like everyone else… she disappeared.


End file.
